2008 Woodie Awards
Questions raised over political drawing
Secret Service visits campus after student cartoon is seen as possible presidential threat
Bob Bennett
Issue date: 11/14/08 Section: News
Originally published: 11/13/08 at 5:50 PM EST
Last update: 11/14/08 at 9:07 AM EST
When Josh Weiner first drew a picture of Barack Obama in gun sites with the phrase "Change is in Site" printed underneath, the Plattsburgh State junior thought it was a witty pun.
He said he had heard a lot of talk around campus about the president-elect getting assassinated before he ever reached office, and he thought the cartoon was a way of representing that.
So, he went home and tried to improve his design by using a photo of Obama from the Web. He posted that design on Facebook as a bumper sticker, and that's when all hell broke loose.
He sent the bumper sticker to about 20 friends on Wednesday, Nov. 5, and it just spread from there. By Thursday, he said people were adding the bumper sticker at such a rapid rate that he and his roommate, Josh
Obercon sat refreshing the page as the adds grew at a rate of four to eight every minute. By the end of the day, 60 to 120 had added it.
And then it was gone. The bumper sticker disappeared, and Weiner and Obercon were not sure if Facebook administrators took it down. It just disappeared before he had a chance to remove it himself. And then Weiner found out that a Secret Service agent was looking for him.
But before the disappearance of the sticker, approximately 200 people had added it, and the bumper sticker drew a lot of hate mail, as well.
Weiner said he received multiple messages about the sticker. One simply said to "watch out," and another said, "I'm disgusted with disgusting people like you … go burn in hell."
Weiner said the whole experience originally left him feeling as though his rights had been violated.
He said he felt silenced because the bumper sticker was taken down so fast. He said if a political drawing in a newspaper can run, one should be able to run a similar pun online.
And he said he wasn't even allowed to have a lawyer in the room as he was questioned.
But Charles Haynes, senior scholar of the First Amendment Center said this doesn't sound like a violation of Weiner's rights because congress has already passed legislation that states the Secret Service has heightened authority when it comes to protecting the president. They have the right to investigate this issue and deal with any perceived threats to the president.
He said he had heard a lot of talk around campus about the president-elect getting assassinated before he ever reached office, and he thought the cartoon was a way of representing that.
So, he went home and tried to improve his design by using a photo of Obama from the Web. He posted that design on Facebook as a bumper sticker, and that's when all hell broke loose.
He sent the bumper sticker to about 20 friends on Wednesday, Nov. 5, and it just spread from there. By Thursday, he said people were adding the bumper sticker at such a rapid rate that he and his roommate, Josh
Obercon sat refreshing the page as the adds grew at a rate of four to eight every minute. By the end of the day, 60 to 120 had added it.
And then it was gone. The bumper sticker disappeared, and Weiner and Obercon were not sure if Facebook administrators took it down. It just disappeared before he had a chance to remove it himself. And then Weiner found out that a Secret Service agent was looking for him.
But before the disappearance of the sticker, approximately 200 people had added it, and the bumper sticker drew a lot of hate mail, as well.
Weiner said he received multiple messages about the sticker. One simply said to "watch out," and another said, "I'm disgusted with disgusting people like you … go burn in hell."
Weiner said the whole experience originally left him feeling as though his rights had been violated.
He said he felt silenced because the bumper sticker was taken down so fast. He said if a political drawing in a newspaper can run, one should be able to run a similar pun online.
And he said he wasn't even allowed to have a lawyer in the room as he was questioned.
But Charles Haynes, senior scholar of the First Amendment Center said this doesn't sound like a violation of Weiner's rights because congress has already passed legislation that states the Secret Service has heightened authority when it comes to protecting the president. They have the right to investigate this issue and deal with any perceived threats to the president.
Be the first to comment on this story